Uncoupling attachment for car couplers



May 26, 1925.

' 1,539,354 C. M. HANNAFORD UNCOUPLING ATTACHMENT FOR CAR COUPLERS Filed Jan. 31, 192 v Patented May 26 1925.

UNITED STATES CLEON M. HANNAFORD, OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA.

UNCOUPLINGATTACHMENT FOR CAR COUPLERS.

Application filed January 31, 1925.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CLnoN M. Hannaronn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Richmond, in the county of Henrico and State of Virginia, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Uncoupling Attachments for Car Couplers, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to the type of uncoupling attachment for railway car couplers represented in my case filed March 13, 1924, Serial No. 699,001, and is in the nature of an improvement upon the invention in that case.

The object of the invention is to provide a simplified and efiicient substitute for the links, chains, clevises, pins and cotters commonly used for connecting the operating mechanism fixed to the ends of railroad cars withthe uncoupling members forming parts of the car couplers.

As in the case mentioned so here, the invention consists of a pair of flexibly connected unlike members, constructed and ar ranged as hereinafter explained, one of which members is adapted to be engaged with the lock-lift or the equivalent device of a car coupler, and the other of which is adapted to be connected with an operating mechanism fixed to the end of the car and usually consisting of a rocking rod provided with an arm extending outwardly from the car and over towards the coupler, said attachment being so constructed as to permit of its removal without taking down the operating mechanism, the specific improvement being the provision of an oifset terminal ,of the first-mentioned member which invites the blow of the hammer used to close the loop when the device is applied, as I will proceed now to explain and finally claim.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating the invention, in the several figures of which like parts are similarly designated, Figure 1 is a perspective view showing a part of the end of a car, the operating mechanism, and coupler, and the connecting device or uncoupling attachment of this invention. Fig. 2 is a perspective View of the connecting device detached showing the de vice open and in readiness to be applied, and Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the device as it will appear when in position and closed. Fig. 4: is an elevation showing a Serial No, 6,013.

modification, the full lines illustrating the device in open position and the dotted lines illustrating the device in closed position.

The invention is shown in Fig. 1 in connection with an approved type of automatic or J anney coupler, in which a lock-lift 1 is used to ensure the engagement of the couplers on adjacent cars and capable of being raised to permit uncoupling of the cars, although the invention is applicable to other types of couplers, in which a coupling pin of some sort is used to control the operations of the couplers. This device 1 is supplied with an eye 2 to be engaged by the uncoupling attachmentor connecting device. There is also shown an operating mechanism comprising a. rod 3, part of which is shown mounted in bearings 4, one of which is shown, these bearings being fixed to any suitable part of the end of the car. The rod 3 has an end extension or arm 5 projecting outwardly therefrom toward the coupler and having in its extreme end an eye or slot 6 to be engaged by the connecting device.

As already stated, the connecting device is composed of two unlike members, the I lower one of which designated 7 inclusively, has a bottom portion or loop 8 of the general outline of a U in side elevation, one limb of this loop terminating in an eye 9 arranged substantially at right angles thereto and the other limb 10 having an offset terminal 11 which when closed rests against the eye 9 and its further movement restrained by contact with said eye, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3. By this construction is avoided the danger of closing the member so tight as to produce a binding effect that would interfere with the desired freedom of movement of the two members of the device. This offset end invites the hammer blows used'to close the loop against the eye and the eyearrests any closing of the loop that wouldtend to deform the parts or cause binding of the members.

The other member of the connecting device, designated inclusively as 12, has an eye 13 at its upper end, with the free end 14 turned slightly aside if need be and left open, and a shank 15, on the bottom of which is a trasversely arranged block 16 having in its opposite edges the grooves or notches 17 which straddle the limbs of the U-shaped portion of the lower member 7.

These two members, 7 and 12, are flexibly united, that is to say, they have freedom of longitudinal movement and some lateral play, in order to compensate for themovements of the car, the coupler and the operating mechanism.

The connecting device is furnished to the user with the limb 1O slightly open, as shown in Fig. 2, to permit said limb to be engaged with the eye 2 of the lock or other coupler control, and then this limb maybe closed in 'as shown infull lines in Figs. 1 and 3. The upper member 11. has its eye 13 engaged with the eye 6 in the arm 5 of the operating red by a twisting movement. It is immaterial whether the connectingdevice is applied first to the operating rod or to the loclclift, although it is preferred to apply it to the operating rod because of the twisting motion necessary to effect such application. V

Inasn' uch as the shank 15 is of a length suflicient to drop the block 16 toward the bottom of the member 7, said block will rest on the top of the eye ofthe lock-lift, as shown in Fig. 1 a'nd'thereby the weight of theconnecting device will serve to prevent accidental displacement or creeping or working out of the loch-lift in the operation of thecar or coupler, as in service. It is not an infrequent occu'rrencein old style arrangements that the lock lifts work up in the couplers and the cars thereby become uncoupled. This cannot occur with my attachment. The play of the upper member in. thelower memberof the attachmentprovides the necessary lost motion to prevent the accidental lifting of thelock-lift by the vibration of the operating rod and its arm. The necessary motion to effect the lifting of the lock-lift serves to bring the block 16 and the eye 9 into contact, afterjwhich the further movement of the operating rod serves to. raise the connecting device and the lock-lift into unlocked and uncoupled position.

I Incase ofdamage to the car or coupler, and inany other case where it isnecessary to disconnect the parts, the limb 10 may be opened and the connecting device detached from the lock-lift; or the eye .13 may be disconnected from the arm 5. In no case is it necessary to detach the operating rodv wholly or in part from the car in order to effect the removal of the connecting device; and yet the parts of the connecting device are so firmly connected to the lock-lift and the operating rod that unauthorized removal is practically obviated or insured aga nst.

Using the invention on certain old type cars having styles of couplers now obsolete, it is possible that there may bemore or less binding action when using the attachment or connecting device shown in Figs; 1, 2 and 3, and; .tl'iis objection will be wholly overcome by using the construction illustrated in Fig. etwhich differs from the connecting device shown in Figs.- 1, 2 and 3 only in making the loops of the lower and upper 'm'einbers more nearly circular, as shown at 8? and 13" respectively. As shown in Fig. 4, the loops are left open for the user, as indiated by full lines, and then when the attachment is applied these loops are closed as indicated in dotted lines. J

I The attachment shown in Fig. 4 has all of the advantages of the attachment shown in Figs. 1, 2' and 3 and the operation and function as a connecting device are substantially the same in both instances.

By reason of the three-point guide, namely. the eye in the lower member. and the notches or grooves in the bloclt, the two members of the attachmentare at all times in line and free to move with the coupler in all directions, withoutbinding.

Variations in the details of construction areconsidered to be within the principle and scope! of the invention as herein expliiiined afndhereinafter claimed.

hat I claim is 1. An uncoupling mechanism for car couplers, comprising two' unlike intere'nand relatively sliding members, one of which is adapted to beattached to an uncoupling arrangement on a. car and the other to engage the means to controlthe operation of a coupler, said last mentioned member having a transversely arranged eye in which the other member has sliding'movement and the eyed member having a looped portion the free end of which is offset and adapted to be closed against the eye after said member is connected with the coupler element;

2.- An uncoupling mechanism for car complers, comprising two unlike members. one of which is a substantially U-sha-pe'd loop one limb of which ends in a transverse ly arranged eye and the other limb extends up into contact relation with the rim of such eye and at that portion is offset, and the other member has an eye at oneend, a shank cxtendingthrough said transverse eye, and a notched block arranged between and engaged by the limbs of the first-mentioned member.-

Iii testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 30th day of January A. D.

' CLEON M. HANNAFORD. Witnesses A "THUR H. WnsroN, M. BAooioALUP'o. 

